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Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

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Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#81

Post by r3trohack3r »

diob wrote: post #55
radu_floricica wrote: post #52

Funny thing is, making cities more green isn't even _that_ difficult. I see above conversations on living closer to nature, or mountains vs parks - but the vast majority of time spent is walking and driving in the cities. So it seems a no-brainer that before everything else, before thinking about taking a 2 hour drive to hike, or making the time for a weekly visit to the park, we should first make sure the places peo…

This is part of why I love visiting Japan, so much nature scattered throughout otherwise urban areas. Lot's of other places in the world like it as well. Makes me jealous since I love in the concrete wasteland that is Phoenix.

Hey fellow Phoenician!

I actually have a different experience in Arizona. The masterplan communities here are great at prioritizing community space. My neighborhood is connected by an interior park-like trail that twists and winds for 22miles. Most houses are within 2 blocks of an entrance to the trail system, and there are two separate k-12 schools attached to the trails so kiddos can ride their scooters/bikes to school in the morning.

There’s also some of the best hiking in the world around here. The camelback ridge line is awesome, a bunch of abandoned mines with surrounding settlements to go explore, etc. and it’s only 45minutes to the rim where, thanks to the jump in elevation, you start seeing more green.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#82

Post by throwaway894345 »

n8cpdx wrote: post #68
throwaway894345 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds great! Where at?

Portland, OR.

That makes sense. As I understand it, Portland isn’t particularly dense. Someone yesterday was just likening it to suburbs and talking about the great access to nature: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31241348

It certainly sounds appealing!

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#83

Post by bell-cot »

TedShiller wrote: post #9

The pro housing people always think more housing will lower rents. Apparently they’ve never been to a big, dense city.

It's the ratio of people to housing that matters. The world has plenty of ghost towns, nearly-abandoned villages, etc. with under 100 housing units...which are dirt cheap, because the people/housing unit ratio is far less than 1.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#84

Post by vishnugupta »

radu_floricica wrote: post #52

Funny thing is, making cities more green isn't even _that_ difficult. I see above conversations on living closer to nature, or mountains vs parks - but the vast majority of time spent is walking and driving in the cities. So it seems a no-brainer that before everything else, before thinking about taking a 2 hour drive to hike, or making the time for a weekly visit to the park, we should first make sure the places peo…

> making cities more green isn't even _that_ difficult.

On the contrary it takes quite a bit of effort to keep the nature at bay. Neglect a corner of your house and next thing you notices small ecosystem developing full with small grass, mold, insects and what not. When Indian cities were locked down for a few months all sorts of birds and animals started appearing in the neighborhood.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#85

Post by User23 »

yongjik wrote: post #71
throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

It feels weird to argue against suburbs while I'm living there, but... Most pro-density/pro-mass-transit people aren't arguing against rural lifestyle. They're against suburban, car-dominated lifestyle. I'll conjecture that, for many people, the potential benefit of living "close to nature" is more than negated by driving everywhere. Commuting in a subway in a mega-city easily racks up thirty minutes of brisk walking…

Unless you’re Amish or otherwise plain living, the rural lifestyle is exceedingly automobile dependent.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#86

Post by throwaway894345 »

standardUser wrote: post #76
throwaway894345 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few hundred acres of forest is very different than a few hundred acres of soccer pitches, tennis courts, playgrounds, lawns, gardens, etc with a few acres of bird sanctuary, wetland, or prairie strewn about. It’s better than concrete, but it’s not nature.

Most towns and suburbs don't have acres of wild forest in them. That's not exactly a unique "flaw" of cities.

What a bizarre constraint. Of course the forest isn’t in the town. You live in a suburb or town or (this is going to blow some minds in this thread) acreage outside of town that is at most a reasonable drive to nature.

My criticism of cities is that a lot of them are hours away from anything that anyone would call nature (although this thread has made me aware that there are a shockingly large number of people who have never actually seen nature and for whom the word conjures up images of their local urban park).

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#87

Post by arminiusreturns »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #20

I live in the mountains 400 km away from any city. Can confirm it's pretty nice.

It rough for us mountain people who have to live in the city though. I miss the mountains and forest so much. What's even worse is my plan to retire back to the mountains is now going to be so hard because of all the outsiders inflating property prices that were already high.

It is nice to have so many conveniences and things to do available in the city (a trip to the store isn't a once a month thing because it's so far away), but the spiritual/mental benefits of living in and near nature are second to nothing for me at least.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#88

Post by d--b »

This what I liked living in lower Manhattan. Whenever I felt the stress levels going up, I’d rent a citibike early in the morning (forgot what they’re called now) and cycled down to battery park through the riverside and went back up on the other side.

It’s not exactly the most nature-y thing to do, but it was so refreshing.

Same thing in Los Angeles, just climb up the canyons and enjoy the view. Amazing really.

I think the view does it for me more than nature. Being in front of some spectacular landscape gives me perspective (perhaps it’s why we call it persoective?)

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#89

Post by User23 »

ahartmetz wrote: post #15
throwaway894345 wrote: post #6

This is the sort of thing I think about when the pro-urban/pro-density/anti-car people talk about their vision for the world. I live in a city now, and the lack of substantial nature is suffocating to the extent that I plan to move. The idea that we should all live this way to conserve space—a resource which is only scarce in these urban places—seems excessive to put it mildly. EDIT: A lot of urban folks are rebuttin…

I live in Berlin, which contains many trees and parks. One of the nicest quarters of Berlin is Gartenstadt (garden city) Frohnau, which feels like houses in the forest - at decent density. So it doesn't have to be either city or nature. But I'm afraid that current cost structures and short-term thinking make another Gartenstadt very unlikely. Well. It may be that this kind of place only really works as a suburb. It d…

There’s virtually no wildernesses in Europe. Even the famous Black Forest is more of a large public garden than nature. It does still get somewhat wild up in the Alps, but you might find it hard to notice with all the manicured farms and a Gasthof on every hilltop.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#90

Post by throwaway894345 »

User23 wrote: post #85
yongjik wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels weird to argue against suburbs while I'm living there, but... Most pro-density/pro-mass-transit people aren't arguing against rural lifestyle. They're against suburban, car-dominated lifestyle. I'll conjecture that, for many people, the potential benefit of living "close to nature" is more than negated by driving everywhere. Commuting in a subway in a mega-city easily racks up thirty minutes of brisk walking…

Unless you’re Amish or otherwise plain living, the rural lifestyle is exceedingly automobile dependent.

These days a whole lot of the Amish are also automobile dependent. :)
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